Colonizing astronomical bodies, such as our neighbor planet, Mars, as well as our very own Moon, has been humanity’s dream for decades now. Countless novels and films have already imagined what this would look like, should it happen. But before this dream could be fulfilled, some scientists say that we may need to do something first if we really want to settle down on other places other than Earth — we may need to tweak our DNA.
Crewed missions to Mars, which NASA wants to start flying in the 2030s, will be tough on astronauts, exposing them to high radiation loads, bone-wasting microgravity and other hazards for several years at a time. But these pioneers should still be able to make it back to Earth in relatively good nick, agency officials have said.
It might be a different story for those who choose not to come home, however. If we want to stay safe and healthy while living permanently on Mars, or any other world beyond our home planet, we may need to make some tweaks to our species' basic blueprint, experts say.
Of course, this would probably be a controversial topic, as this would lead to bioethical discussions.
More about this over at Space.com.
What are your thoughts about this one?
(Image Credit: geralt/ Pixabay)
Mars is a dead end, always was. I think its neat to photograph Mars and take samples, but i don't think anything good will come of sending people there.
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Before any of that, we need to figure out how to have a (nearly) self-sufficient ecosystem. Otherwise, feeding and providing air to those Martians will be very expensive. Building rockets is the easy part - we had that basic technology in the 1970s.
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